An engineering graduate from the University of Kentucky has made the largest single gift in the school’s history.
Stanley Pigman received a bachelor’s degree from the College of Engineering in 1981 where he studied mining engineering. The University announced Friday that Pigman donated $34.5 million to advance the college and support students.
Rudy Bucheit is the Rebecca Burchett Liebert Dean of the College of Engineering at UK. He said a gift of this size takes time to process.
“This is something we have been working on with them for the better part of a year, so it’s a process that goes back and forth, they want to give, they want to support, they want to enable the college of engineering and they need to understand from us how their giving can have the greatest impact.”
He said he was excited to receive the gift but knows there is work to do.
“The other side of it is that it is a big responsibility, so the resources are transformational, only if we work to make them transformational. In some sense, this is an end of a negotiation to put resources in place but it’s the beginning of a process of actually making them work to support the mission of the college.”
Bucheit said an additional $4 million dollars will be added to the gift through a match.
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